"Your Royal Highness, I wanted to ask you when I came through the door," Hogg showed an expression as if he had finally caught his breath, the kettle of ice water in the wooden barrel had already been emptied by him, "The painting in the hall … I'm afraid it's not something an ordinary person can draw, right? Whether it's the degree of realism or the perspective of looking down from the sky. "He paused, then lowered his voice and asked," Is this … the work of a witch? "
Roland looked at Margaery, the latter nodded, "Your Royal Highness, please rest assured, Hogg is an old friend I have known for many years, he also has no malicious intent towards witches."
"You guessed right, it was indeed drawn by a witch." Two days ago, Roland had ridden a hot air balloon to sightsee near the beach, so he wanted to preserve this magnificent scene of beauty. Moreover, the castle's living room was simply decorated, there wasn't even a single painting, so he simply let Soroya turn the stone wall behind the main seat into a huge mural. With the artistic background wall, the style of the hall instantly rose by several levels.
"I knew it," Hogg sighed, "Although they are advertised as the devil's minions, but those strange abilities are really enviable. Ordinary people can't fly in the air like them, and then draw such a beautiful and peerless mural. "
"You only got the first half of the sentence right," Roland shook his head, "Even if ordinary people don't rely on magic, they can still fly, they can even fly higher than eagles, and fly faster than swallows."
"You're really humorous," Hogg laughed, "Only if we have an extra pair of wings, and become lighter than birds."
Margaery was startled, "Really?"
"Of course," the Prince said with a smile, "I can prove it to you."
Letting the merchants see their various inventions was also an effective way to improve relations and expand trade routes, from the mugs to the liquor, as for whether they could sell it or not, that was another matter. In any case, the caravan would stay in Border Town for a few days, so the regular business negotiation process should be about eating, drinking, and having fun, and finally signing. Moreover, Anna was also very interested in traveling by hot air balloon. It just so happened that she could take a break from her busy work and rest for a while. It could be said to be killing two birds with one stone.
Cloud Gazer quickly finished inflating, and for this voyage, Roland simply called the witches who hadn't been able to ride the hot air balloon last time. Lucia also timidly asked if she could take her younger sister to take a look, and he readily agreed.
When the balloon slowly rose with everyone, Margaery covered her mouth in surprise, while Hogg tightly grasped the edge of the basket, not knowing whether he was excited or afraid. Bell was too short to see the scenery outside the basket, so Lucia had to pick her up and put her on her shoulder. She carefully approached the basket and told her not to move. As the navigator and rescuer, Lightning kept circling around the hot air balloon, making faces at Bell from time to time.
Just like that, the hot air balloon once again circled the southern coastline, completing its aerial sightseeing tour.
…
After returning to the castle, Hogg's legs were still trembling, and he stammered, "I never thought that looking down from the sky would actually be so frightening, I felt as if I could fall at any time."
"You'll get better after flying a few more times," Roland said with a smile, "The people whose feet leave the ground for the first time will have this kind of illusion, just like people who have never gone to sea, will also vomit on a bumpy ship."
"You're right," Margaery exclaimed in admiration, "The scenery we saw today was really incredible, looking at the edge of the sea from the sky, it unexpectedly looked like a blue arc."
"However, Your Highness, it seems that what I said wasn't wrong," Hogg drank a mouthful of iced white wine, "Ordinary people can indeed fly to the sky, but this is still the credit of the witches. If it weren't for them, this big guy wouldn't have been able to fly. "
"No, my old friend," Roland hadn't even opened his mouth, when Margaery rushed to speak first, "Don't tell me you haven't noticed? Miss Anna is only releasing flames, that's all. I also specifically asked Lightning, she told me that as long as the air bag is filled with hot air, the Cloud Gazer can rise to the sky by itself. Flames aren't the privilege of witches, Your Highness, am I right? "
She was indeed worthy of being a Fjords sea merchant who had established a foothold in King's City, whether it was her observation or her ability to think, she was exceptionally outstanding. Roland smiled and nodded, "The hot air rises and the cold air sinks, this is also the reason why it's called a hot air balloon."
"You really only need to light a brazier to do it?" Hogg asked doubtfully.
"That won't do, because if you want it to float in the air, you must continue to heat it up, and the wood itself is very heavy, we can't carry too much, so we must use a special method to solve this problem."
"Can you do it?" Margaery couldn't wait to ask.
"Well … it should be possible," Roland thought for a moment, "It's just a bit troublesome."
"That's great," she immediately said, "I hope to buy four or five hot air balloons from you, they don't need to be too big, just enough to carry one person."
"Do you want to use them on the ship?" Hogg asked.
"Well, the mast can't be extended indefinitely, but the hot air balloon can, as long as we tie a rope under the basket, so that it doesn't float away with the wind. With the hot air balloon, the lookout can find nearby pirate ships earlier. For sea merchants, in addition to unpredictable storms and tsunamis, the biggest threat is a group of pirates. "
"But I'm afraid the cost of it won't be too low," Roland estimated in his heart, "I estimate that it will cost more than a thousand Golden Dragon."
If he didn't use the witch's heating, the hot air balloon would have to use gas as fuel, and the easiest to obtain would undoubtedly be gas. Unfortunately, Graycastle's coal mine was located in the Coldwind Ridge area, which was too far from Border Town, and according to the current traffic conditions, it was almost impossible to transport it. Replacing it with a hydrogen balloon would be easier to achieve, but at the same time, he would need to solve the problem of the gas storage tank. If he couldn't freely charge and release it, then it wouldn't have any practical value.
"How about a thousand Golden Dragons for each balloon?" Margaery haggled, "If you really make such a thing, I can guarantee that all the caravans that travel to and from the Fjords will want to buy one or two."
"This time, the Crescent Moon Bay Caravan didn't come, otherwise they would definitely place a large order," Hogg drank the white wine in his hand in one gulp, "I don't need it, although the hot air balloon looks very magical, it has no use for the mines of Silver City. I only hope to get my steam engine as soon as possible. "
The price the other party offered made Roland overjoyed, a thousand Golden Dragons was the price he had estimated after increasing the price by five times, he didn't expect that the other party would actually be willing to accept a price that was twice the price of the steam engine. However, when he thought about it carefully, the goods carried by a ship were likely to be worth more than this price, not to mention the entire merchant fleet and the sailors on board. As long as they could avoid the plundering of the pirates, this deal was still a good deal for the sea merchants.
In addition, a thousand Golden Dragons wasn't a one-time deal, whether it was hydrogen or gas, they were all consumables, and when they were used up they had to be brought back to Border Town to inflate, which was another extra income … Of course, if they bought a large number of gas tanks at once, they could consider giving them a discount or giving them a number of times to inflate. In this regard, the 4S shop and the two barrels of oil were examples he could learn and imitate.
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